Friday, April 28th | Charles Stanley

Hello, everyone. Today is Friday, April the 28th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. You guys can help us keep this conversation going by supporting the show, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from. We're going to leave a link in the description below so you can do just that. But before we do... You know what time it is. I think it's time. It is time for the verse of the day. Maybe in a long week.

Maybe things have been frustrating for you this week. We've made it to Friday, but you just need a little pick-me-up. Well, we have the word of God to do that for us. Today's verse of the day comes from Psalm 32, verse 7. You are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble. You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. I just want to echo King David on that and just say thank you, God. Thank you for the confidence that I have in your power and that we, I think, collectively, as your people, the people of God, have in your power. He gives us strength to deliver us from every attack of the enemy.

He gives us strength to persevere. And that's what it means when it says, you're my hiding place. You're that safe place, that refuge that we have when we have times of trouble or when we feel like we're surrounded on all sides by enemies. That's the whole point of David saying that.

It's just to say thank you for being that for us. And I love that it doesn't exempt us from difficult times in life. It doesn't say you won't ever encounter from trouble.

You won't ever encounter trouble. But David says, you shall preserve me from trouble. You'll help me make it through to the other side.

You will see me through the difficulties that I face. Maybe that's you this week. Maybe you've had a difficult week. Maybe things have been frustrating. Maybe things have been scary.

Maybe you've had, you know, just a kind of a normal week. God is your refuge. He's your hiding place.

He's the one who will see you through every season of life, both good and bad. And, you know, I've got some advice. If you've been having a difficult week, I've got some that might relax you like a little outdoor activity. Okay. Which is, um, is gardening. Oh, okay.

Yeah. And I have not been gardening. Just, but I think you may, you may could, no, listen, Ellie has been gardening. I don't know why, but Ellie has been into growing plants lately.

I've seen y'all had like a set up going on. She bought some little beds, some like little plant beds and filled it with soil. And then the baby's kind of helping her. And you know, she, he's kind of putting the plants down and watering the plants while they're at home. Um, but she grew some basil.

Okay. She bought a basil plant and grew some basil. So I made homemade pesto. I took some basil and some spinach and I just made homemade pesto and I put it over pasta and that junk was, excuse me, that junk was delicious.

It was so good. I took some, I took some spinach and some basil, some olive oil, some pine nuts and some Asiago cheese. Yum. And I put all of that, I put it all in a food processor and serve that mess over some pasta and it was delicious.

Sounds very good. Green sauce over pasta. That's all it was. And it was so simple and yet it still tasted so good. The only thing is pesto makes me feel nauseated after.

I don't know why it just throws my whole equilibrium. It's a lot of oil. It's a lot of oil, but it was worth it. I even ate pesto again last night.

And man, I'm just going to tell you that will really end. Also, if you're having a hard week, carbs and pasta. That'll really make you feel better. Pasta, pasta always, it's like a hug from food. Yeah. If gardening doesn't work, eat you some carbs. Try pasta.

Yeah. Try pasta. Cause I promise you, no matter what noodles or sauce you use, you are going to feel better or a little bit anyway. Then you're going to feel terrible. Then you're going to feel really bad.

Then you're going to feel bad again. So you just, I guess this is like new, new forays for you into the world of like food grown from the ground. Yeah. Greens. Greens. I'm eating vegetables now. I like it. It has to be chopped up real fine and served as a sauce, but I mean, Hey, it's still vegetables going into my body.

I like it. You know, it, it doesn't taste as bad. A lot of vegetables tastes like nothing. You know what I mean?

That's true. A lot of vegetables just tastes like nothing. Which is why you can like dice them up or put them in a food processor and add them to stuff.

People will never know. Yeah. I mean, we've added like squash to spaghetti sauce before and the kids have no idea.

Yeah. I've been doing that with onions too. I'll just put onions in a food processor and then cook it into whatever meat.

And I mean, it, it really disappears in there. It tastes great. And if you hate vegetables, you don't, you can trick yourself into eating them. Yeah. You're not actually eating vegetables at all.

That's right. You can just be, you can just tell your brain, I'm not eating vegetables. This is just all meat and carbs. The next step would be to make, I think pasta from vegetables. Like a Zoodler, like a zucchini noodle. Kind of. Yeah.

Yeah. I had someone cook me lasagna with zucchini noodles one time and I wanted to fight that person. I wanted to, I bit into the lasagna and it like noodle crunched and I was like, what is this? To be fair, those were not noodles made from, those are not noodles made from zucchini. That was just zucchini.

Yeah. That wasn't like, I'm going to masquerade this as pasta. It was just like, where there would be a noodle, this is, this is just zucchini. I didn't.

So that wasn't a very good disguise. It was a free lunch. So I ate it, but I was very like, Oh, why, why is this happened to me?

I was like swallowed a hole and I was like, Yum. We've got an exciting episode planned for you guys today. Continuing through Malachi. We're going to grab Dr. Shaw in just a minute, but if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to two five two five eight two five zero two eight right in. Let us know what do you, what activity do you have? We talked about gardening. What activity do you have that kind of like de-stresses you? What do you have that kind of like, you know, is your happy place?

What do you, what is your go-to? You can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. Send us an email there as well. We'll be back after this. Hey there, listeners. I'm Jon Galantis.

And I'm Ellie Galantis. And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about Dr. Shaw's and Nicole's book, 30 Days to a New Beginning. Daily devotions to help you move forward.

You know, this is actually the second book in the 30 Days series. And the whole point of this devotional is to help us get unstuck from the ruts of life. You know, when it comes to running the race of life, it matters how you start, but a bad start doesn't ultimately determine how you finish the race. You can have a good finish even with a bad start. And that's where this book comes in. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're going to get stuck.

Instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner, like I know I've done several times. I know that's right. 30 Days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things.

His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over. You can grab 30 Days to a New Beginning on Amazon.com. We're going to leave a link in the description box below. And if you already have the book, let us know what you think about it.

That's right. Send us a text 252-582-5028. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Ellie, you ready to get back to the show?

Let's do it. Hey, everyone, my name is Ellie. And I'm David. We want to take a minute and let you know how we can actually serve you as you're listening to Clearview today. The Bible paints an extraordinary picture of who we are as a church body. The mission of Clearview Church is to lead all people into a life changing, ever growing relationship with Jesus Christ. A huge part of leading people is praying for them. A big reason that Christians have unanswered prayers in their life is because they're not praying.

You know, First John 515 says, and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. If you're listening to the Clearview Today show, we want to know how we can pray for you as well. There's a number of ways that you can get in touch with us at Clearview and share your prayer request. But the best way is by texting us at 252-582-5028. You can also send us an email at prayer at clearviewbc.org.

Or you can download the Clearview app on iTunes or Google Play. You know, on that app, there's a dedicated prayer wall that helps us to get to know what's going on in your life, how we can pray for you, and how we can take any necessary steps to get you moving in the right direction. Thanks for listening. Now, let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart from the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right.

If today's your first time ever joining us on the Clear View Today Show, we want to welcome you, let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadon Shaw is a Ph.D., a New Testament textual criticism professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. You can find all of his work on his website.

That's AbbadonShaw.com. That's right. Dr. Shaw, today we're going to talk about a very special person to Christian broadcasting to Christianity in general.

Many of you may be familiar, last week, Dr. Charles Stanley passed away. That's right. At 90 years old? He was 90? That's right.

90 years of age. Wow. Yeah.

And what a legacy, what an unbelievable impact he's had on the world. That's right. That's right. Well, you know, many people may not realize that we live in Vance County, right? North Carolina. So right on the edge of North Carolina and Virginia.

But if you go to the northwest of here, you will go towards Danville, Virginia. That's where he's from. He was from. I remember I was talking about that and I didn't realize that he was quite as near as he was. Yeah, he was a Southern Virginia guy. He was born in a place called Dry Fork, Virginia, which is like an unincorporated place, but that's to the north of Danville. So he is, in a sense, local. I mean, it takes what, two hours to get to Danville? If that. I mean, you can get there an hour and a half on a good day.

Yeah. So Dan River is over there. My wife and I took a trip to Danville in January of 2022, if I'm not wrong.

Or 21, maybe 21. And we went over there and we went to the Y there just to see it. His beautiful sits on the Dan River, but that's where he's from. Wow. Yeah. If he was 90 when he died, that means he was born in like the thirties or something. Yeah, he was born in 1930.

So I mean, that right in the middle of the Great Depression, like all this stuff is going on. Yeah, 1932. Wow. Yeah.

September 25th. That's crazy. You think about people born during that time period and what they must have had to go through and the lives that they grew up living must have shaped them into the people they are. Yeah. Yeah.

We just did that whole series on the generations, how the circumstances you're born in shape you into that person. But I mean, even then someone born into the Depression, growing up to have the legacy that Charles Stanley had. Right. And even his own father, Charlie, died just nine months later.

After he was born. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

So I mean, he grew up not knowing of his father. Yeah. Wow.

His father died at 29 years of age. Wow. Yeah. It's impressive, though, that he was still able to do that by God's grace, rise to the position that he did and impact the world, Christianity, for the way that he did.

Right. And just taking the reins and just kind of teaching him and training him in what he needs to do, what he needs to believe as far as Christianity goes. His grandfather as well made a big impact on his life.

Wow. And if I'm not wrong, they were Pentecostal preachers. And so he had that upbringing. But later in life, he chose the Baptist doctrine and theology, Southern Baptist, to be more accurate. And that's where he felt at home. So he grows up essentially in and around the church with these people who kind of have this legacy, like you said, Pentecostal preachers, who faith is infused into what they do. When does he kind of discern like, this isn't just the world that I'm growing up in. This may be what God has for me, that maybe this is the calling on my life. Very early on, they say about 14 years of age, he felt like he was being called in ministry and he begins preaching the gospel.

And this is like 1956 we're talking about. So quite early for him to hit the ground running in ministry. And so he went to the University of Richmond where he got his bachelor's, went on to get his bachelor of divinity from Southwestern.

This is in Dallas, Fort Worth, Dallas, Texas. And then he got his master's and doctorate degrees from Luther Rice Seminary. And so that's where he did his education.

For a time, he did pastor, fruitland Baptist or Bible church, Baptist church, where he also taught. So where you guys go for... I didn't know that. Yeah.

Wow. We're looking for our mission trip with our students over the summer for the Baptist Bible Church. How did you all get involved there at Fruitland? Dr. Shaw. I mean, Dr. Shaw's connection, I came to him and I said, hey, we're looking for a mission trip opportunity, something that we can kind of set the pace and control our own content and programming. He said, well, I've got a contact who their group takes a trip to Fruitland Baptist Bible College up in Hendersonville. So let me get you connected with him.

And then from there, we're going back, this is the third summer in a row that we've gone to Fruitland this summer that we're taking a group of students. And Charles Stanley taught there. I did not know that connection with Charles Stanley. Yeah. Wow. That's very cool.

Small world. Yeah. So that's where he started pastoring? Well, he started doing that earlier on. He pastored other places, like in Danville. But here, he even began to teach homiletics, preaching, teaching, those kinds of things. And then, of course, his big ministry happened at First Baptist Atlanta. I've been there.

When I was in college, I was a broadcast journalism major. And so In Touch Ministries was worldwide. I mean, it was a big deal in the 90s, I mean, in the 2000s as well.

But in the 90s, it was a big deal. And it was awesome for me to realize, man, this is just like, what, 30 minutes north of where we are? I mean, south of where we are? So like, oh, I want to go there. So we had taken a field trip. And we went to the In Touch Ministries headquarters. Dr. Stanley was there in his office, but we didn't get a chance to sit and talk to him or anything. But he had to leave.

Something was going on. But we were able to tour his facility and look at all how the filming happened, the recording happened, the editing happened, all those kinds of things. We were able to walk in and out, and then spend some time in his office looking around.

Of course, not by ourselves. There were people guiding us, kind of like showing us how he does things. What was that like for you, majoring in broadcast journalism and then going to somewhere like In Touch and being able to tour and see kind of behind the scenes? It was a big deal for me. I mean, this is like 1993, I would say. Wow. Yeah, if I'm not wrong, 1993 when I went to In Touch Atlanta.

And it was just blown away. Now, to back up a little bit, we used to go to First Baptist Atlanta every Saturday night for our Atlanta Street Ministry. So our college was connected to First Baptist Atlanta and those who signed up, and I signed up not because I was that burdened for the street ministries, because you get to go to Atlanta and you don't have to, you know, you don't have any money in your pocket to go see Atlanta. You walk around talking to people about Jesus, handing out tracts, nah, I can do that.

Not that I didn't care about the gospel, but you know, at 18 years of age. Why Atlanta at 18 years? Why not?

Why not? Someone's taking me there. Yeah. And on the way back, we would stop at Varsity Atlanta, you know, get the hot dogs. What are you having?

What do you have? So, you know, that was good. So we would go to First Baptist, not like in Charles Stanley's office or anything. We would go to a little, that would be kind of cool. He just kind of pats the seeds. He's like, come here.

What would you like to talk about? It was funny because, you know, prior to starting Clearview today, I didn't know that he was as big into broadcast as he was. You know, it was a huge part of what he did and what In Touch Ministries did before. I knew he was, you know, just through talking to you, Dr. Shah, that he was the senior pastor of First Baptist in Atlanta, but I didn't know about all of the In Touch Ministries. I didn't know about all the broadcasts and the radio syndications that he was part of. Yeah.

Yeah. It was, you know, he had a tremendous gift in teaching and getting down to a level where people can understand and apply, and it was just phenomenal. So, you know, when I entered the ministry, when I submitted the call to go in the ministry, this was in 1995, I was working at a plant up in Northeast Georgia where they made switches for cars, like electrical switches.

And so drive time was about 30 minutes, 35 minutes. And I would listen to Charles Stanley. I would listen to several of the preachers, but I love Charles Stanley. And in fact, a year earlier, 1994, I got to meet him in person.

Really? And I was in the RB, which is a National Religious Broadcasters Convention. And in Washington, DC, I was able to meet him, got a book signed by him, one of his devotional books, and it was pretty cool. And then, you know, a year later, I submit to the call in ministry and I'm like, wow, I have the guy's book. Now I'm listening to him on the radio. So it was a big deal for me to listen to him every morning and sometimes even in the afternoons on the way back.

Was he radio specific or did he do television as well? Television as well. Yeah. Yeah. He did both.

But for me, it was more listening to radio. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It was phenomenal teacher and statesman, but there was, I'm sure many of y'all heard about some trouble in his marriage. This happened back in the early nineties and then in the mid nineties, like 96, 97, it just really blew up where his wife demanded a divorce. And you know, so everybody jumped on his wife and it was like, how terrible of a person you are.

How would you do that to her? And again, no man is perfect, right? Nobody is where they need to be. And of course, Charles Stanley, as gifted as he was and as used by God as he was and as impactful as he was on my life, he wasn't perfect. And not that he did anything like go outside his marriage or anything like that, or, you know, cheat on his wife or anything, none of that. He was good in that way. He just didn't put that priority that was needed towards his wife and family because he was so driven. He was so focused on ministry. He was involved in Amway and things like that as well. So he was so focused on these things and it definitely impacted his marriage. And so when his wife demanded that divorce, it was very painful. It was shocking to me.

I'm like, that's my hero. What happened? Oh, you're terrible, terrible person. But then he, later on you hear and you go, oh, well, I don't know what to say.

How can that be? Cause this man taught me so much and yet he, he was not making his own wife the priority. And you know, some people have said, well, she had issues and this and that, and that could have been the case, you know, I don't know, but I just feel like the priority should have been of course God, but then definitely his wife and, and then ministry. But I think at times he crossed the line. It was ministry and success and even, you know, through Amway finances and all that became far more important. And that's, that's sad.

That shouldn't have happened. Yeah. And I think that's an all too common trap that especially men fall into is that when you start to taste success, it's never, you know, it's, it's very rarely enough. You know, I look back on the things that we've done and I'm like, man, I see the drive to do more, but I mean, working under you, Dr. Shutter, there's always that understanding of, hey, don't forget to don't, don't neglect God. Don't neglect your family. Don't neglect these things that God has given you because the success as we're tasting it ultimately is temporary. We know that we're working towards ultimate success, which is, you know, unification with Christ. But at the same time, these things that we're doing, like, kind of like you said, if left unchecked can't, it's, I mean, just like we talked about in our Malachi episodes, these blessings that God's given us, if we don't treat them right and we don't put them in their proper place can turn into, they can rot.

I would suggest, you know, do whatever you can to take your family along with you in ministry. That's right. I'm not saying it's going to eliminate every problem there is. No, of course not.

I mean, there will be times that you won't live up to the person you need to be, but take them along, make them part of the vision. I don't think he did that quite. And so his own son, Andy, you know, kind of turned against his dad back in the same time period. And it was, for me, it was tragic to watch this family falling apart and it becoming national news. In fact, international news that son is demanding the resignation of his father and he's working under his dad. They took the divorce that seriously, they were demanding that he resign?

Not necessarily by the divorce part as much as about my dad is not the man he is supposed to be. Really? Yeah.

Wow. So I think Andy should have handled it differently in my opinion. I think it should have been like, hey, I'm going to resign and then you and me as father and son, we need to talk instead of in the church, rising up, dividing the church. We're sharing all this because sometimes we put people on a pedestal. We put them at a place that only belongs to God. There is no perfect person. So we need to see the realities and go, ah, note to self.

Don't make that mistake. Isn't it funny how people get uncomfortable about stuff like that? Like we have no problem pointing out King David's flaws. We have no problem pointing out Moses' flaws. And these are men that God has specifically set aside and shown their flaws. But people who are still alive today were like, he just better not say nothing about him.

Not that we're trashing him, but I'm just saying that's what makes us human. Right. I would have said, you know, hey, you need to resign. You're working under your dad. So, and he's the head in charge there, you need to resign and then handle it man to man. Instead of saying, hey, take him out and I will, I will be the next one to help get this church back on the right track. I'm not saying he said that. I don't think Andy said that, but it was sort of headed in that direction and it was like, oh yeah, that doesn't, does not need to happen.

That's right. You know, so I say all that to say every family has their problems. Every family has struggles and we need to offer grace. We need to pray for each other and avoid that. And not today, just to clarify, today of course, Charles Stanley has passed away into glory.

He's in the presence of God. But a few years after, a few years after that incident, father and son did, didn't make it right. And it was, it was beautiful that that happened. Of course, Andy went on to start North Point Church in Atlanta, very successful church, doing great. And of course, Charles Stanley continued doing what he was doing right up until about three, four years ago. He was still pastoring, still preaching and he was sit down and preach and you know, did a lot of wonderful things. He was also a two term president of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1984 through 1986. At a very critical point, you know, with the conservative resurgence, he stood firm on the truth of God's word, which was, you know, which was the main issue. And so people who respected him kind of looked to him for direction and, and guidance as to how and where to go in the midst of this crazy time period and Stanley did that. So well done.

Good and faithful service. That's right. Absolutely. I love the way you brought that out that, you know, while he had all these accolades and while he's known for so much and such a tremendous impact, continues to have an impact, he wasn't, he wasn't a perfect person.

And it's good. It's good to say that it's not only acceptable, but it's good because a lot of times I will look at my own life and my own family issues and I go, man, why can't I get it together? Why can't I be like these heroes that I, that I ended up idolizing, you know, these heroes of ministry and these, these men who seem to, they have it all together and God is just blessing them. It's like, I hate to keep telling, tying it back to Malachi, but just because it's still fresh on my mind, like, like these people that God is just blessing and he's not blessing me. Well, think about, you know, do you want to exchange places with them, what they actually have to go through? Is it, is it worth it? There's a lot that happens that we don't know about.

We just see the polished exterior that looks just like success 24 seven and we can sit here and pretend that it didn't happen and that everything actually was picture perfect, but that's not the story that God wrote. You know, it's, it's, it's kind of, it's kind of primitive to say that because I heard it from somebody who, I don't trust him, but every theology or a doctrinal statement, but he said, you know, another level, another devil, if you want to go to another level, you have a whole different kind of attack coming, right? Do you want that? That's right.

A lot of people want that big stage, big limelight and all the success. Well, you're going to have a whole different set of attacks coming at you. That's right. Do you want that?

Uh, no, no. Everybody wants to go to heaven. Nobody wants to die. So yeah, you know, so when you see people on the big stage with doing great things, big things, don't ever be envious. Don't ever let the enemy bring that feeling of why not me?

Because you don't know what they're going through or you don't know their weaknesses and their failures. That's right. That's right. And, you know, just be humble and be grateful to the Lord for even allowing you to be used. It's a privilege to be in ministry to begin with.

It's just to be allowed to do this over any other job in the world is a privilege. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Shah, not only you giving us this opportunity, but you continuing to guide us and shape us, not just as people who work in a church, but as men, as husbands, as fathers to coach us in those things like, hey, bring your family along with you, make sure you invest in your family as well. I appreciate that more than I can say. Thank you. Thank you. And I appreciate that. And you guys are my heroes. You're doing that. You're doing it. Well, you've set a good example.

That's right. You know, we've formed a family here and this family bond that we have on the Clearview Today Show and at Clearview Church, I mean, is going strong. I think it's a testament to what God is doing in this little corner of North Carolina.

He's already shown he can bring greatness out of these. Amen. Amen.

That's right. If you guys enjoyed today's episode or you have questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website. We're grateful to all of our giving partners and we count you as our Clearview family, our Clearview Today family, as we stand shoulder to shoulder and impact the nations with the gospel of Jesus. I have a Charles Stanley quote to close on. I mean, there's so many to choose from, but I have one here that kind of jumped out at me if it's okay with you guys.

Yes, please. He says, we are either in the process of resisting God's truth or in the process of being shaped and molded by His truth. So true. One of two realities. You're either resisting God's truth or you're being shaped and molded by His truth.

That's our whole goal here on Clearview Today is that you would be shaped and molded by God's truth. Beautiful. We love you guys. We love you. We love you. We love you. We love you.